With Mixed Feelings, Iraqis Tune In To Trial

October 20, 2005|By Borzou Daragahi Los Angeles Times

BAGHDAD — In a humble living room, a brother and sister's bonds of pain drew them together in front of a television Wednesday in search of justice for their lost relatives and punishment for Saddam Hussein.

"Look at this," Saadia Saidi, whose family of 13 has been whittled to two over the years because of executions and exile, said to her brother, Mohammad. "He was a dictator. He had everything. Now he's in a cage."

In Dujail, the Shiite Muslim town that is the subject of the former regime's first trial, Jawad Kadhim spat on the television screen as he watched Hussein enter the court room. "He has the face of a dog," Kadhim said mockingly, as he watched the trial with friends and relatives.

In a Sunni district of Mosul, a former Iraqi army officer also scoffed at the screen, but in support of the former president. "They want to show him in this humiliating and disgraceful light," said Abdul-Rahman Ali, 37. "But I want to say that I am totally ready to replace Saddam and sit instead of him on that defendant's chair."

As the first session of the trial of Hussein and seven deputies on charges of crimes against humanity beamed out through dozens of Arab-language television channels, it took on a life of its own.

Streets across the country emptied and protesters headed to the homes and businesses of friends or relatives with generators to watch the proceedings. They surfed across the array of channels for the best reception and commentary.

For those treated harshly during Hussein's long tenure, the television images fed fantasies of vengeance as well as hopes for justice. In Shiite cities like Samawa, site of at least 28 mass graves filled with victims of the former government, residents see the trial as the first step toward redressing decades of suffering.

"I've been looking forward to seeing the trial of the criminal," said Abdul Karim Na'im, who said his pregnant sister's corpse was left on a street for a week after a failed 1991 uprising against Hussein's rule. "I feel that my sister's soul will not go wasted if I could see Saddam dead."

Iraqis strained to hear the garbled audio transmission, which at times was indecipherable. As the defendants began filling the courtroom, Iraqis filled the silences with their own commentary.

"This is the day your deeds come back to haunt you," said Ali Haidari, 37, of Dujail, as he watched the proceedings.

Hussein's flashes of defiance electrified his supporters while inspiring loathing in the mostly Shiite city of Basra, the focal point of three devastating wars over the past 25 years.

"I am sad and happy at the same time," said Jassim Hassawi, 51, who lost four fingers when tortured after his 1991 arrest. "Sad because Saddam is arguing with the judge and saying whatever he likes instead of being humiliated and silenced. Happy because I see Saddam and his followers with my own eyes in a cage."

The Los Angeles Times is a Tribune Co. newspaper.

WEDNESDAY DEVELOPMENTS

26 slain: Sunni-led insurgents in Iraq kill 26 people in attacks, including six Shiite factory workers who were gunned down in front of fellow workers in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, police say.

Possible kidnapping: A correspondent for British newspaper The Guardian is thought to have been kidnapped.

Vote count continues: Slower-than-expected vote counting continues from the weekend's constitutional referendum. Questions about the integrity of the vote and delays in getting ballots mean results won't be announced until Friday at the earliest.

Monument destroyed: A bomb topples a monument honoring the 8th-century founder of Baghdad.

Tribal leader attacked: In Kirkuk, a vehicle carrying Kurdish tribal leader Sheik Anwar Khalifa is hit by a car bomb, police say. He escapes but a passer-by is killed.